Google’s Pixel 8 Pro, 9 Pro, and 9 Pro XL are stepping up as heavy hitters in the smartphone photo and video race. One of the coolest upgrades in the mix is Video Boost, a feature that taps into Google’s powerhouse data centers and AI smarts to seriously boost your video quality. There’s a catch, though: you need to manually flip it on before every recording, which is a total pain. But now, it looks like Google is reworking how Video Boost operates on Pixels, hopefully making it way less of a hassle.
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According to a number of Reddit users (spotted by Android Authority), Video Boost is getting a major overhaul. Instead of forcing you to manually turn it on every time you hit record in the Pixel Camera app, the feature now seems to stay on by default. Several Pixel Pro owners have already noticed the change, ditching the old hassle of enabling it for every single clip.
Only available on Google’s top-tier phones, Video Boost uses cloud-powered processing to take your videos to the next level. Once uploaded, the footage gets a makeover, with Google’s computational photography tweaking colors, lighting, stabilization, and even reducing grain. The end result is a professional-looking video that still feels real and true to life.
Good for videos, bad for storage space
However, Video Boost’s heavy computational needs are why it’s only available on Pixel Pro phones. The feature requires serious processing power and generates large file sizes, which means Google has to dedicate a lot of server resources to make it work. While the Gemini Nano model’s arrival on the Pixel 8 and 8a hints at the possibility of Video Boost expanding to more devices down the line, for now, it’s still a perk reserved for the Pro models.
So, while most users are on board with the always-on Video Boost, keeping it active could take a toll on storage and put extra strain on backup servers.
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